McCourt School in the News

Will 2013 be a great year—the year economic recovery picked up steam and our paralyzed democracy began to function constructively again? Or will it be a year of tragically unnecessary lost opportunity? The choice is up to our newly re-elected leaders and the public they represent.

A site that analyzes state-level data of how much people earn a year after graduating college found some counterintuitive results: Certain students who earn associate’s degrees can get higher salaries than graduates of four-year programs — sometimes thousands of dollars more.

The only way we will avoid a constitutional crackup is for a new, bipartisan majority to take effective control of the House and isolate those who would rather see the country fall into chaos than vote for anything that might offend their ideological sensibilities.

If we used the same metrics in education that we do in business, the U.S. system would get an F when it comes to ROI. At $1.3 trillion a year, America is spending more on education than any country in the world -- yet we rank 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading. Something doesn't add up.

Dr Alice Rivlin is an economist who has seen every boom and bust since World War II. Now aged 81 she is one of President Obama's advisors on debt. It's her job to come up with solutions to America's financial crisis. She speaks to Jenni Murray about the challenges of being female and wanting to be an economist – rejected from some universities, and even forbidden from taking out library books because she was female.